International initiatives to work with the police

Turning now to international activist responses, these have often revolved specifically around justice issues. It is true that the original feminist movements against domestic violence in many countries were full of passion. They were commonly suspicious of the police and the criminal justice system, and unenthusiastic about working closely alongside them. Back in the early days, responses almost everywhere by the police to women reporting violence (of all types) were poor, and the issue was not taken at all seriously. The police tended to assume in most countries that a man's home was indubitably his castle. These difficulties led, as time went on, to women's projects grasping the nettle. Sometimes reluctantly at first, there began to be attempts by women across the world to challenge inadequate criminal justice and other statutory responses.

The violence against women activists in many countries have since worked with determination on police and justice issues over all these years, through training, policy development, campaigning and lobbying, with some (often fragile) successes. Passionate movements for change and strongly fought-for advances have occurred, for example, in the varying activist contexts of India, Brazil and elsewhere. Some of these are highlighted here.

As a first example of international activist innovations, the Special Cell for Women and Children in India was, and is, a unique and astonishing programme, aimed at eliminating violence against women, especially domestic violence. It has long provided strong gender violence activists and social workers to support women victims of violence, actually within local police stations. Such a milieu can be challenging, demanding grit and courage from the women activists. One of the principals of the Special Cell initiative is a clear understanding that it is the responsibility of the State to prevent violence against women.

It was established in 1984 as a strategic collaboration between Bombay Police and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, in Bombay/Mumbai, led originally by Anjali Dave of TISS, and now by Trupti Jhaveri Panchal, to both of whom my thanks are due for friendship and liaison. This has been a pioneering feminist project in the Indian context, which has been rolled out across India (sometimes using different names).